Rejected — “Epigram for Wall Street”

This humorous trifle was first attributed to Poe by Thomas Ollive Mabbott. There are distinct similarities in this presentation of a
query to one in the same paper from only a few months before for Poe’s “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob.” At this
time, Poe was associated with the Evening Mirror as a sort of subeditor. There are certainly other examples of such humor in
Poe’s works, even in verse, and the attribution was generally accepted with only minor reservations.

In correspondence from Enrico Brandoli, of Italy, to the Poe Studies Association, however, this poem was revealed as an item that
was being circulated in the New York newspapers around January 1845. His information was expanded in the form of an article, printed
in the Edgar Allan Poe Review for the Fall of 2011 (see bibliography, below). The original source for the poem appears to be a
British newspaper called the Somerset County Herald, and Great Western Advertiser (Bristol, Bath, the South Western Counties,
and South Wales, UK) for April 13, 1844. It was subsequently picked up and reprinted as a humorous filler item in a number of
newspapers in the US. Although it is possible that Poe was somehow involved in selecting and possibly renaming the item, it is just as
likely that he had no connection to it at all, and that it was adapted by other editors at the Mirror, such as Willis or
Morris. In any case, the poem was clearly not written by Poe, and thus it may be safely removed from the Poe canon.

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Historical Texts:

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

Reprints:

“Epigram for Wall Street” — January 19, 1955 — Long Island Star-Journal (Long
Island, NY) (A letter to the editor, bearing the title “Poe’s Poem Gives the Secret for Wealth.” The letter is
signed “Thomas O. Mabbot [[sic]], Professor, Hunter College.” The brief introductory note states: “Today is the
146th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. To mark the day, I am making public a poem by Poe that hitherto has seen the
light of day only once, in the ‘Evening Mirror’ on Jan. 23, 1845.” This item was unearthed by Enrico Brandoli
after the publication of his article identifying the actual source for the poem.)